A number of TV moms are reportedly in trouble for their motherly actions off the screen and in the real world. Lori Loughlin of Fuller House has been indicted, while Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman was also arrested in a scheme to get high school students into Ivy League colleges. A large number of parents are involved and are accused of having paid bribes upward of $6 million to get their children into colleges such as Harvard and Yale.
According to the federal indictment on the Justice Department website, the huge bribery scheme is nationwide and is a cheating scam aimed at college admissions. The affidavit posted separately by the Justice Department suggests that there are other Hollywood stars and a number of chief executives among the 50 people who were charged in the scheme on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors said that the individuals indicted paid bribes totaling up to $6 million to get their kids into schools such as Harvard, the University of Southern California, Yale, Georgetown, and Stanford.
Court documents on the indictment had been previously confidential, but they were unsealed in Boston on Tuesday and the names came pouring out. Along with Loughlin, who plays Aunt Becky on Fuller House , her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, has also been charged.
TMZ has learned that while many have been indicted, Felicity Huffman has actually been arrested and is already in custody. She is going to be released on a signature bond, which is a promise from her to appear in court.
Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin Indicted in Alleged Ivy League Bribery Scheme https://t.co/kKv9MGfgic
— TVLine.com (@TVLine) March 12, 2019
Police found out about the scam after they discovered a businessman in California who allegedly ran an operation to get kids into the college that they wanted. Per TMZ , the parents of these children would pay the man a certain amount of money, which he would then push toward an athletic coach, ACT administrator, or SAT administrator.
From there, those people would allegedly take the necessary actions to make sure the child did well enough in their chosen fields. The coach would make up a fake profile to list the child as an athlete for how the colleges would view the student. Next, SAT and ACT administrators would reportedly either hire someone to take the test for the student or simply correct their answers.
Huffman and her husband, actor William H. Macy, reportedly made a charitable donation in the sum of $15,000 to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scam. This was on behalf of their oldest daughter, who was said to be given twice the amount of time to take the SAT as opposed to other students.
The paid proctor also secretly agreed to correct her answers after she was done, the Justice Department alleges. Huffman and Macy’s daughter received an SAT score of 1420, which was an improvement of around 400 points over her PSAT.
So far, Macy has not been indicted.
Felicity Huffman ARRESTED in College Admissions Bribery Case https://t.co/iSgH07rkjZ
— TMZ (@TMZ) March 12, 2019
Lori Loughlin and her husband allegedly paid $500,000 to have both of their daughters designated as recruits for the crew team at USC. Neither of their daughters has actually participated in crew at all.
A witness who was cooperating with the authorities secretly recorded phone calls they had with both Loughlin and Huffman. In those calls, the celebrities were purportedly heard discussing amounts of money and the college entrance scheme.
According to the indictment, the majority of the children admitted to the colleges had no clue what their parents were doing. Most of these kids believed they were getting accepted to these colleges on their own without having knowledge that their parents were paying anything.